SUNx Malta Unveils its CFT Community Approach

SUNx Malta President Geoffrey Lipman  unveils the organisation’s new flexible  Climate Friendly Travel Community (CFTC) centred approach.

“The framework for Climate Friendly Travel Communities (CFTC) rests on “glocal” programs (Global Framework/Local Action)  that take a destination specific approach to achieving UN Paris 1.5, and the SDGs,” says Lipman. “These will assist them in halving their emissions by 2030, and achieving zero emissions by 2050.”

Communities can be at the national or subnational level, urban or rural. They can incorporate a range of key travel and tourism stakeholders – particularly government, residents, visitors, travel industry and civil society. They are "trailblazers" committed to taking real action. 

At the heart of these communities lie the STRONG Climate Champions; national leaders who have taken the Graduate CFT Diploma at ITS Malta, and SUNx Malta’s one week on-line induction training.

“The Climate Champions, working with SUNx Malta, will connect with community stakeholders to help shape both strategy and action to achieve 2030 and 2050 targets,” Lipman says.

Communities joining the CFTC program will receive ongoing online support from SUNx Malta, including the CFT Registry of Ambitions, which is linked to the UN Global Climate Action Portal; and the CFT Resource Portal, curated multimedia best practice database.

Members will also access a series of benefits from SUNx Malta’s SDG 17 Partners, providing a wide range of products such as resilience testing, emission reduction, and sustainability support services. In addition they will get a CFT Eco-Badge, which will demonstrate to travellers their commitment to the principles of CFT, and can be used in marketing programs.

CFTC starts with a two-year Code Red Game Plan requiring start up finance, a commitment to work with SUNx Malta to build their 2030/2050 roadmaps, based on peaking emissions by 2025, cutting GHG in half by 2030, and achieving Zero GHG by 2050, in addition to relevant SDG targets.

The launch of the CFTC initiative is most timely. The recent ‘code red for humanity’ IPCC report has made it clear we are running out of time to take meaningful action to confront climate change. The CFTC program has been launched in advance of the Stockholm+50 meeting held in the Swedish capital from 2 to 3 June 2022. This marks the 50^th anniversary of the original United Nations Conference on the Environment also held in Stockholm, which was the first international conference on environmental issues, led by the late Maurice Strong after whom the STRONG Climate Champions are named.